The Light

For the first time in their two-week stay in The Palace, as Jack had taken to calling it, Daniel felt like himself again. His head didn't hurt, he could form coherent sentences and he was almost comfortable around balconies again. The real test of his revival, though, was that he was starting to be more annoyed at the fact that his team leader wouldn't leave him alone than comforted by it.

Jack hadn't let the archaeologist out of his sight for more than a few minutes at a time since they'd been stuck here. Sam had finally convinced O'Neill to take a walk with her to test out the limits of their slowly increasing freedom from the device.

Daniel had mouthed a silent "Thank you!" to her and tried not to smile when Jack waved goodbye to him. The first thing he'd done was go find a balcony to stand on for a while; Jack still wouldn't let him near one, and even though his memories from back on earth were still muted by the drugs in his system at the time, Daniel remembered the feel of the balcony rail underneath his hands and the sound of the desperation in Jack's voice and found that he couldn't exactly blame his friend for not wanting to be around heights for a while. Still, the protective instinct was starting to grate.

Eventually the novelty had worn off and Daniel had wandered back to the Gate room to take a look at some glyphs on the DHD he'd been meaning to translate. He'd found Loren already there, staring off into space with an absent look on his face that had become a familiar presence over the last few days of SG-1's forced vacation here.

Teal'c was off exploring the rest of the building, leaving Loren and Daniel to themselves. The two of them were sitting side by side on the stone stairs, content to be silent. Daniel felt a kinship to the alien teenager that was similar to the one he shared with Cassie; he knew what it was like to face life without parents. He hadn't pressured the boy for details, not once. Which was probably why Loren came to find Daniel when he felt the need to get away from Jack for a while.

Loren had been shifting in his seat for the last five minutes. Daniel sensed an impending question, but he pretended not to notice, shaking his pen a little and coaxing a few more words from its rapidly dwindling ink supply onto the pages of his journal. Finally the teenager gave in and turned so he was facing Daniel's profile. "You and Jack are very close."

The archaeologist closed his journal and looked thoughtful for a moment, as if the statement required serious deliberation. "Yeah, I guess we are."

Loren tilted his head quizzically. "You are not sure?"

"No, it's not that. It's just…" he trailed off, not at all sure how to finish. "My relationship with Jack is…complicated."

Loren turned to face him fully, effectively bringing Daniel's focus completely onto him. Neither of them noticed when O'Neill came to a stop just inside the door to the room and stood in the shadows, arms crossed over his P-90, to listen.

The young alien continued unabated. "Have you known each other a long time?"

A smile played across Daniel's face. "Sure seems like it some days."

"I thought so!" Loren cried triumphantly. Jack couldn't help the grin that spread across his face at the kid's enthusiasm even as he ducked back a little further into the shadows to make sure Daniel wouldn't see him. Loren's next question, though, was enough to make Jack's head come up in surprise. "You are brothers."

Jack enjoyed the look of momentary befuddlement on Daniel's face. The anthropologist quickly pulled himself together, though, and O'Neill was even more surprised at his friend's answer. "I guess you could say that." At Loren's eager expression, Daniel continued thoughtfully. "We're…Jack and I met under very…difficult circumstances. We didn't get along very well."

Jack winced at the memory. Those first few days on Abydos weren't on his list of better personality moments.

Daniel's eyes had misted over a little as he sorted through the memories. "But we had to work together, and in the end we defeated an evil, false god. Like the kind that built the machine." He gestured contemptuously at the room that held the device that was keeping them all here. Jack ducked backward quickly to keep out of their eye line.

Loren's face reminded Jack of a toddler waiting for a bedtime story. "What happened then?"

"Then?" Daniel blew out a breath. "Then he went back to Earth, where we came from, and I stayed on the planet that we saved. My wife was there, and her family. We were happy there for about a year until…"

Jack was about to step forward to save Daniel the pain of having to tell this story, but the anthropologist started up again so quickly that the colonel didn't get the chance.

Even Loren seemed to understand that these memories were still painful to Daniel. His voice was much softer this time when he prompted, "Until?"

Daniel's eyes focused back on the here and now. "Until she was taken by one of those false gods and enslaved by them." A bittersweet smile chased across his face and Jack's chest ached a little at the sight of it. "Her brother was taken, too. Jack liked him. You remind me a little of him, actually."

O'Neill started in surprise; he thought he'd been the only one to note how much like Skaara this alien orphan was.

"What happened to them?" said orphan whispered.

"We found them, after we searched for a long time. Skaara went back home. Sha're, my wife…died."

Loren stared at the man before him in evident shock. "I am sorry, Daniel."

"Me too," the anthropologist said with that same melancholy look in his eyes. He shook his head a little, as if to clear it. "But anyway," he continued in a business-like tone, "Jack's always been there. We've been through a lot together. He's a stubborn idiot a lot of the time, and he doesn't always listen to people like he should."

The man in question grimaced a little; he deserved that, but still…

But Daniel wasn't finished. "But without him, we wouldn't be here. None of us would." His blue eyes left Loren's fascinated face…to settle directly on Jack's. O'Neill realized that he should have known that Daniel had known he was there the entire time. He admitted his defeat with a wry grin in his friend's direction. Blue eyes met brown as Daniel finished, "I make things hard for him sometimes." Jack resisted the urge to snort, but Daniel's sincere gaze pierced him. "I trust him. Out of anyone in the galaxy, I'd trust him." His eyes drifted back to Loren's. "So yeah, I guess you could say we're brothers. On earth, we call that being someone's best friend."

Jack blinked a couple times in rapid succession to clear the moisture gathering in his eyes. Daniel glanced at him over Loren's shoulder with amused emotion in his eyes, a smile playing across his mouth even as he listened to the rapid questions coming from his attentive pupil.

O'Neill smiled back somewhat shakily. Then he nodded his head in thanks, waved a hand to say, "Don't get too carried away," and left the two of them to their little talk.

Jack figured it was about time that he showed his best friend some trust.

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Author's Note: I know it's been a while, but things are back up and running! Origin and The Serpent's Lair are coming next. Tell me what you thought!